Coastguard Volunteers rescue man following boat explosion

Shortly before 2200 hours last night Coastguard
Radio received a distress relay call from a vessel who had
been alerted someone in trouble on a nearby boat near Huhuri
bay of Waiheke Island. The Coastguard Operations Centre
quickly tasked ASB Rescue and Lion Foundation to the
incident, responding at best speed given the dark and choppy
conditions.

Twenty minutes after the original call
Coastguard Volunteer Chris Griggs boarded the yacht to find
a man wrapped in a duvet in the shower on-board his yacht,
he was in severe pain and suffering from mild hypothermia.
Whilst attending to the man Chris quickly found out the man
had significant burns to his body following an explosion
with the man able to explain that an explosion had occurred
in the engine room, it quickly became clear that he’d been
engulfed by a fire ball whilst existing the engine room.
“The fire had caused significant burns to his lower body,
he had done the right thing in getting wet and sitting under
the cold water but in doing so had started to go hypothermic
and was in immense pain” said Mr Griggs. As a trained
medic Chris was able to administer the man with a level of
pain relief that then enabled the crew to move the patient
to Lion Foundation Rescue then once further stabilised he
was quickly taken by the Coastguard Rescue Vessel to Kennedy
Point where they met the Auckland Rescue Helicopter team and
the patient was taken to the burns unit at Middlemore
Hospital.

The incident didn’t end here for the
volunteer crews, given the fire that had occurred on-board
the vessel ASB Rescue stayed with the Yacht and awaited the
return of Lion Foundation Rescue with Firefighters on-board
to ensure any hot spots were out. ASB Rescue then stayed
nearby overnight with the unaccompanied yacht which has
today been looked after by friends of the man.

The
outcome could have been a lot worse for the boatie who lives
aboard his vessel and was attending to some maintenance in
his engine room when the incident occurred. “Situations
like these certainly see your training kick in, it’s huge
credit to the volunteer crews involved in the incident,
we’ve given the man the best chance of survival in
responding how we did and wish him all the best with his
recovery” says Mr
Griggs.

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